Hey Divi Nation! Welcome to our second Divi Nation Community Report! A lot has happened since our first update, and we’re excited to fill you in on what our Meetup groups have been up to. We’re also thrilled to introduce you to new groups that recently launched, and to the amazing hosts that took the leap!
But First – Say Hello to Our New Event Coordinator!
As a reminder, we launched our Divi Nation Meetup Network earlier this year, and as it grew, we quickly realized we would need a person on staff to manage the Network full time. (We also needed someone on board to help plan DiviCon, our first ever user conference).
We’re happy to say we finally found that person! Christina Harter came on board at the end of September, and has already streamlined the onboarding process for new hosts, spoke with several current hosts to gather feedback on how we can better support them, and created a variety of new resources.
We’re excited to have her on the team as we can now provide top-notch support to our hosts and can work to grow the Divi community worldwide. Expect many exciting updates in the future!
Want to become a Meetup host in your area? Or have any questions about how to get started? Feel free to email Christina at [email protected].
Let’s Welcome Our New Meetup Groups
We have 3 more Meetup Groups that launched recently, and we’re excited to introduce you to the hosts. See below for introductions (in the host’s own words) and info on their next Meetups.
We also want to give a huge thank you to these new hosts for stepping up and volunteering their time. Together we’re working on making the Divi Nation the most empowered community on the web. Exciting stuff!
Divi Nation Destin in Florida, USA
Meet the host Joy Todd:
My experience includes 20 years of website design, development and maintenance experience. In 1999, my husband and I packed up our family and moved to Destin, Florida from Seattle, Washington and started an online tourist website for the greater Destin, Florida area. Soon thereafter, we became very involved with the local business community and extended our services to include website design (HTML/PHP/WordPress/Database), SEO, consulting, and hosting. After much research and trial and error, I switched to DIVI in 2014. DIVI has proven to be a solid platform that continues to grow and perform for my clients.
Their first event is on November 1st. If you’re in the Destin / 30A area, check them out!
Divi Nation Fort Meyers in Florida, USA
Meet the host David Somerfleck:
Hi! I’m David, and I’m the owner of Sudden Impact Web Design. I’m an experienced mediator, author of five books whose writing has appeared in over 50 publications, a former college Journalism professor, founder of three startups, and an expert in digital marketing, and traditional advertising.
While Fort Myers is a smaller town, David hopes to attract Divi members from all over Southwest Florida.
Click below to check out the group’s first event, which is being held on November 17th!
Divi Nation Paris in France
Meet the host Julien Guiard:
Hi, I’m Julien. I’m a 31 year old WordPress developer who lives in Paris, France.
I manage WordPress Websites with my french maintenance service named Maintenance WP since two years and also work for one of the biggest WordPress french blogs called WPMarmite.In October 2017, my teammate Pierre Bichet and I launched the first french blog about Divi Tutorials, News and Tips: Divi Community. We also launched two Divi plugins: Divi Visual Footer and Dark Divi.
The first Divi Nation Paris Meetup will be in January 2019. If you’re in Paris next year, stop by their next Meetup!
Updates from Existing Groups
The Divi Nation is now comprised of ~1,100 members, spread out between 11 Groups, in 5 countries. We love seeing the enthusiasm for Divi growing, and we can’t thank these hosts enough for volunteering their time and support to others.
See below for an update on what our groups have been up to!
Divi Nation Atlanta in Georgia, USA
An update from host Sinoun Chea:
The Divi Meetups have been very successful so far – we all have a blast and learn new things. The members vary in experience – from beginners to experts. It’s great to meet new people and learn from each other. Members are eager to learn new tricks that could help them work more efficiently and there’s always something to learn because Divi is so flexible and powerful! We’re looking forward to future meetups!
Milwaukee Divi Society in Wisconsin, USA
An update from hosts Kimberly Hughes & Tracy Champagne:
Divi Society, as we call our Divi Nation Meetup, has been growing steadily; 36 members are on our mailing list. On average, 12-14 people attend each month. They seem to prefer a roundtable discussion that begins with one question by any member. From there, the conversation takes off and it becomes an easy, free-flowing, informative session. Networking is huge in our group and great connections are being made. We send out a newsletter and have a website and Facebook group.
Divi Nation Caracas in Venezuela
An update from host Newman Viloria:
Divi Nation Caracas has grown to around 117 members in just a few short months. Members are a mix of experienced developers and complete beginners. This allows the experienced to share their knowledge and provide support, and beginners are able to ask specific questions and learn a lot in a short amount of time.
Divi Nation Lagos in Nigeria
An update from host Mary Job:
Launched in June 2018, we have grown from two to 169 members. We have had one physical meetup and one virtual meetup. Our next physical meetup is happening this November. At the first meeting, we met with new and old users of Divi to listen to the opportunities and challenges they have encountered using Divi theme and builder. At the virtual meetup, we built a charity website live using Divi Theme. We look forward to growing the community bigger and better in 2019. We can’t wait to meet, learn and network with every Divi user within the Lagos City of Nigeria.
Want to Host Your Own Local Divi Nation Meetup?
Great! We’re always on the lookout for people around the world who are passionate about Divi and want to spread that enthusiasm to their local community. We take care of the monthly Meetup fees, and we provide all our hosts with tons of resources to help plan and promote their events, including help with finding a venue and coming up with topic ideas.
Starting a new Divi Nation Meetup group is simple. Just email [email protected] and we will send you an onboarding form. Once the form is complete, we will work together to get your group launched and linked to our Meetup Network. Easy as that!
Not sure if there’s already a Divi Meetup Group in your area? Just head to our Meetup Network page to see a map of our current locations.
Hi, I would like to manage a Divi Nation Madrid. How can I do it?
Thanks
I would LOVE to help with a Divi Meetup in Santa Monica, CA. Alas, NOWHERE to meetup. Silicon Beach, right? Wrong. Even the WordPress Meetup, with MAJOR ppl running it, runs into so many issues trying to find a physical space.
I dunno what, if any, ideas you have. Library charges major money. But won’t allow anyone to charge for attend library events. Who has a couple hundred dollars to burn for a meetup? Parks have meeting rooms, but I can’t remember the issue.
As for businesses, well, no. I’ve talked to so many which have space.
Sad. I LOVE Divi! I use it for my sites. Been a long-time Elegant Themes user. I think about a decade. But your About page doesn’t give the history.
Pea green with envy. HAPPY for you all enlightened folks. And people think we are creative techies in Silicon Beach. Maybe. Just not forward thinking.
Thanks for sharing really nice post..
Living in the middle of nowhere makes it harder to find meetups. Someday though…
I wonder if you could somehow virtually “pop in” on a meetup.
Hopefully someday we’ll have a really wide-ranging number of groups you can choose from.